


I Think I'm Drowning (In Love)

by WinteryNights



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, First Dates, Fluff and Angst, Hurt Tony, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Protective Steve Rogers, Spring Break, Steve Feels, Stolen Ring, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, but alive
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-22
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2020-01-23 16:51:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18553837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinteryNights/pseuds/WinteryNights
Summary: While on Spring Break from MIT, Tony Stark meets Steve Rogers, hot lifeguard extraordinaire. They may not have had the nicest of beginnings, but they can work it out, right?





	I Think I'm Drowning (In Love)

**Author's Note:**

> Just before I get into this, no, I am not giving up on Take My Breath Away! I have a plan for that one, I swear, but this popped into my head and wouldn't leave me alone. So! Hope you all enjoy!

Really, today couldn’t get any worse. Not only had Tony succumbed to a pretty painful sunburn, but he’d also lost his Ma’s ring somewhere in the white sands of Lue Beach. Lue Beach was one of his favorite spots in Malibu, and he’d been a regular visitor since as long as he could remember. His Ma and his father Howard would take him here all the time as he was growing up.

That was, of course, before they’d both been killed in a car crash when Tony was seven. He was now eighteen and on Spring Break from MIT.

Perhaps some old man nearby would have a metal detector he could borrow? He’d seen sixty-year-old men milling about aimlessly along the shoreline with metal detectors on multiple occasions before.

Besides, Tony knew he couldn’t possibly have lost it in the water since he hadn’t once today gone so far as to even let the waves wash over his feet. See, he’d developed a hydrophobia of sorts. Nearly drowning at the age of ten does that to a guy.

It was strange. How didn’t he notice the ring come off his hand? He’d worn it twenty-four hours a day ever since his Ma had given it to him to remember her by. 

It wasn’t exactly easy to miss, being bright gold with miniature diamond carvings engraved on both the interior and exterior and all. Oh, that and the fact that it had some incredible reflective properties (it blinded him pretty much every time he exposed it to the direct sunlight).

“Fuck,” he growled miserably, dropping onto his knees and beginning to scour the surrounding sands. He was going to spend all day (and night, if he had to) searching for the ring, or else give it up forever, which he wasn’t about to do. That ring meant more to him than anything he’d ever been given. His Ma was one-of-a-kind; never in Tony’s life had he doubted her love for him.

“Language,” a voice commented from behind him. Tony did not appreciate the remark and, without bothering to turn to the stranger, said louder, “Fuck off.”

“Hey! I have the authority to tell security to escort you off the property, you know.”

“Escort me off the property?” Tony repeated incredulously, snapping his head around to face the jerk threatening security on him.

Huh.

Since when did Greek Gods take side lifeguard jobs?

He couldn’t be over twenty-one years old, but he had serious abs - ones Tony could only ever dream of - eyes as crystal blue as the Lue waters, and golden-blonde hair.

Slowly rising to his feet, Tony found himself to be at a loss for words.

Luckily, the stranger spoke and saved him the trouble.

“I mean, it is my duty to keep the riff-raff away.”

Tony raised an eyebrow in disbelief. 

“Riff-raff? All because I told you to fuck off? What, were you homeschooled by Mormons or something? Swearing was a no-no for you?”

Getting on this guy’s bad side was proving to be easy. Tony honest-to-god wasn’t trying to act bitchy towards him. It was just almost a second nature to him at this point and filtering what came out of his mouth was next to impossible.

“Is there something wrong with Mormons? But no, I wasn’t homeschooled, thank you.”

“Hm. Well, if I’m not bothering you too much, I’m kind of busy at the moment, so maybe you could leave me be.”

“Keep the profanity to a minimum and I won’t be inclined to come within a ten-mile radius of you ever again,” Mr. Hot Lifeguard retorted. Tony didn’t justify that with any sort of a response, instead opting to wait until the other man had started walking in the direction of the blindingly white lifeguard chair in the center of the beach to gaze in his direction.

He was one fine man.

One fine man who Tony just blew his shot with entirely.

Cursing his shortcomings, most notably in the social interaction department, Tony quickly looked once more over at Mr. Hot Lifegurd - he told himself that was the last time he’d steal a glance, and if he knew he was lying to himself, that was nobody’s business but his.

Nearly an hour passed before Tony forced himself to take a break from his ring-hunt. It was seeming all the more a lost cause with every second that dragged by.

What happened in the next moments was nothing short of an extraordinary turn of fate. There, strolling right past him, was a full-grown and heavy-built man with a shining, gold, diamond-engraved ring on his pinky finger (most likely because it wouldn’t have fit on any of his other meaty fingers).  
Tony, despite only standing at 5’5 currently, marched right over to the thief, declaring, “Give me that ring right now or you’ll regret it!”

To the man’s credit, he didn’t even try to take off running with the ring, which Tony found odd since there wasn’t a doubt in his mind that he could outrun Tony in a heartbeat. He had to be at least 6’2. 

Quite literally the darkest pair of eyes Tony had ever seen narrowed into a glare and pierced Tony’s confidence like a knife in a plate of Jell-O.

“Don’t speak to me like that, bitch, unless you’re looking to die,” the man snarled menacingly.

Realizing that he wasn’t about to get his ring back - and seeing it up close only served to confirm his prior suspicions that it was most definitely his - without a fight, Tony decided in a split second that if he didn’t act now, he’d never see the precious memento ever again.

So he naturally did the dumbest thing he could possibly do and took a swing at the man’s cheek.

The man easily dodged the blow and grinned malevolently at Tony, hissing through clenched teeth, “Alright, you’ve done it now, boy.”

Tony didn’t even have time to react before the man was pulling his fist back and taking his own swing at Tony’s jaw.

With that, the last of what Tony heard was the ear-splitting shriek of a whistle before his face exploded in agony and he lost the sense of the world around him.

**Author's Note:**

> It's a cliche ending but not a cliche story (hopefully)! This was supposed to be a one-shot so maybe it'll be a two-shot? Or longer, but that depends on whether everybody likes where this is going. See you in the next update!


End file.
